Today, February 2nd, is Working Naked Day. While this holiday seems obscene, it is not what you think. This is the day to celebrate working from home.
As we know, not everyone can work from home. There are jobs that require workers to be onsite. There are jobs that may allow a portion of a work week to be performed from an offsite location, such as a worker’s residence. Then, of course, there are jobs that can be successfully completed 100% from the comfort of a worker’s home.
People have been working from home for several years. According to National Today (WORKING NAKED DAY – February 2, 2024 – National Today), this day was founded by Lisa Kanarek. She founded the brand Working Naked, hence the name of the holiday. Working from home, away from an office full of coworkers, can leave one feeling “naked.” Working in a home office means not being able to quickly turn to a colleague for help on a work task.
There are certainly challenges to working from home. Working in an isolated space not only takes away the ability to swing by someone’s desk for a quick question. Working remotely can mean losing out on those impromptu conversations in the breakroom while fetching a cup of coffee. Working remotely means the possibility of losing out on additional project information that may be communicated by coworkers orally in the office but is left out of an email or Teams messaging. The remote workers must force themselves to concentrate while at home, avoiding friends or family that may not understand the worker needs to focus on their job and not on household duties or long lunch hours. The temptations of TV, video games, a nice backyard, or a nearby park on a beautiful day can be distractions from getting serious work done.
On the other hand, working from home provides a disciplined worker with the ability to focus on the task at hand without distractions in the office. The remote worker can get an early start on a busy day without the dread of a morning commute. They can put in an extra hour of work at the end of the day to finish an assignment, without the worry of getting home by a particular time.
There is no cookie-cutter approach to the remote work debate. There are jobs that will require workers to always be onsite, or at least part of the week. There are workers that will always perform best in the office, while others that will always function best in the quiet of a home office.
Today, those of us who can work from home celebrate this freedom. We face the challenges with this work arrangement and turn them into our advantages. However, regardless of whether you end your workday driving home, taking a bus, or walking downstairs from your home office, what is essential is to prioritize what is truly important, those you hold dear in your life. Work is a tool to help us live, not the other way around.
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